In yee olden days, when I was a kiddie, 75 books in a year would have been no problem. For one thing, I had nothing better to do, and the books were a fair bit shorter.
As of late, though, I've been completely fried by school and work, so I thought I'd try to recapture some of the old magic.
Books I've read so far:
The Dexter Novels, by Jeff Lindsay. Dark and hilarious. I must be the only one who doesn't mind the supernatural element.
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. A charming, bittersweet YA novel. The only novel I've ever read that addresses eating disorders without being insufferably Lifetime.
The Other Side of Desire by Daniel Bergner. Four real-life portraits of people with unusual sexual desires. Relentlessly compassionate.
Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam. Either a novel or a collection of short stories with a common cast of characters, I'm not sure which. Charming, but the author, a doctor himself, couldn't help but include one story where his characters got to act like action heroes.
A Person of Interest by Susan Choi. Very...poignant? Either way, it made me sad. I'm not sure how well it works as a mystery-I figured out whodonnit pretty early. But it was filed under general fiction, so I probably shouldn't complain. Very well written
Message edited by its author, Mar 2, 2009, 2:11pm.
Welcome to the 75ers and I hope you read some good books this year, and meet some amazing people.
Please add my welcome to that of lunacat...
We are a well read, friendly bunch.
Hey, I'll offer a welcome to anybody who has used the tag "zombie" most often. Ok, I'd welcome you anyway, but zombies!
Welcome and good luck this year, Githzerai!
#4 I like Zombies.
World War Z is probably one of my favorite books, but I didn't read it or the
Zombie Survival Guide or
Generation Dead this year. I'm really starting to get into the whole modern supernatural horror thing-but I never know what to pick up next. I'm not a prude - but there's a strain of gender/sexuality related ickyness that seems to run through the genre.
I'm reading
Lonely Werewolf Girl next, maybe that will be fun.
Welcome to the group!
I am another fan of the Dexter book series. He cannot write them fast enough for me.
Your description of
A Person of Interest intrigues me. I will put that one on Continent TBR.
Bodies We've Buried: Inside the National Forensic Academy -> Finished. The more kinds of books I read the less I want to put stars on them. This was a collection of interesting facts delivered in a straightforward, folky voice.
Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. -> Finished. I like gardening, and I think this is a great method-but I wonder how I'm going to build STUFF in a community garden. Everything presumes you're working in your own yard.
Did you read the All New Square Foot Gardening? Or the original. I find the new one much improved, and all you would need to do would be use 1X6 to outline some 4X4 or 4X8 plots. Most community gardens assign you your own plot of land, right? And then you can lay a grid on top after modifying the soil. Bartholomew prefers using wood lath, but I have just used cord and nails. His newest beds are actually mobile!
The All New-though I went on google for the old one to see how I might put the beds in the soil.
I'm being a bit silly. It's just the combination of no storage/no car/everything must be broken down at the end of the season that makes me balk at actually building raised beds. Also I want to grow a lot of trellised plants.
I'm still really enjoying the project though. I have windowsills full of seedlings started. This will be my first summer in Kamloops, so I'll be growing all kinds of things I've never grown before because there wasn't enough sun-heirloom tomatoes and eggplant and muskmellon.
Well, technically, I've also in the past just gridded out the soil in the ground and used the planting schemata. And I really like his use of electrical conduit pipe with the netting for trellis--very light weight and portable, unlike the 2x2 frames I had been building.
Did you notice any difference in the results you got?
If i could find some kind of bracket that would make it possible to take the boxes apart instead of turfing them, I'd do that for certain.
Alright, due to the worlds most boring shift at work, I finished
Lonely Werewolf Girl. It is great. A punk sitcom of werewolves who are crossdressers, who are fashion designers for fire elementals, who are illiterate laudanum addicts. If you don't think this sounds like fun, this book is not for you.
I also finished
Factory Girls, a look at migration and factory workers in China. It would have been better about the asides about the author's family, but it's still a brilliant portrait of the women who make the world's products.
Soon I Will Be Invincible is on my TBR.
I see you have Bloodsucking Fiends, have you read
You Suck? It's a stand alone sequel to Fiends. I think that the second is better though. If you like Fiends you should definitely check out You Suck.
No, I haven't read it. This is my first time reading Christopher Moore. And according to amazon.ca my books are still in transit. Probably in Manitoba somewhere. I will check back in after I've finished it.
Finished
Soon I Will Be InvincibleIt's splendid. Write a sequel. Comparisons to Watchmen, however, are overblown-"Soon I Will Be" is far more affectionate towards its source material. It's a slightly jokey return visit to a beloved genre.
Already DeadI'm not sure how I feel about this one. I find it very hard to argue with hard-boiled Vampire detectives kicking the asses of evil child-molesters and puppy-kickers. And I am not being flip, someone actually kicks a dog. And also there are zombies. The characterization is a little flat, and I don't like how he does dialogue-what's wrong with quotation marks-but I'm going to read the next one.
So I know I'm a bit late in the welcoming committee, but I've been reading so much lately I've only popped onto LT to review a book I've finished.
>6,
World War Z was the second book I read this year and it made my list of top books too! It was quite chilling. I have yet to read
The Zombie Survival Guide. Is it good as well?
Hmm, the
Zombie Survival Guide is good, but it's different. It really is a fake survival guide. There's a chapter at the end-recorded outbreaks that's very funny and probably the genesis of WWZ.
They're doing a "recorded outbreaks" graphic novel, which should be awesome.
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